Difficult Decisions Posted on November 21, 2007 Elizabeth L. George (bio) explains how careful decisions and a supportive mentor allowed her to balance career and family.

When my son was about six months old, I really felt like I had to make a decision about what my life was going to look like, and I knew that I could go back into the full work week and full work life and do all of these things or I could pick and choose and maybe not do all of them. Coincidentally I ended up in the hospital around that time with a kidney blockage, and I think that made my decision for me. I think I decided, I've got to slow down.

I need to just be a mom for a little while, because it was a very big transition. And so I, though I really had wanted to be a part of it, decided not to be a part of STEP and decided to put all my time and focus into the adolescent study that we were doing and to try to spend more time with my son, who coincidentally got kicked out of every daycare setting known to people.

And I remember Gary Sachs had told me that he took a year off after one of his children was born and it didn't hurt his career one bit. So I said, "I'm going to use the Gary Sachs model, and I'm going to take a year off," and so I did. I took a year off after my second was born, and then I've gone back three days a week.

And one of the things that's made this possible is that I worked for such an amazing mentor, David Miklowitz. He's been so supportive of my career with the kids. You hear from a lot of women that once they have children, they sort of get put on less important projects and get minimized in a lot of different ways.

And so he's been very supportive, and even when we've given talks at Children's Hospital I've brought the kids. He's always, "Oh bring your kids with you." I brought them to the lab meetings that we had every week, and he has been wonderful at letting me have both.

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